In a way, a congressional committee’s approval of continued funding for the Mars 2020 mission and study of a planned visit to Jupiter’s moon Europa could be characterized as a small step.

But, combined, the missions represent a giant leap in space exploration that will maintain a U.S. presence in the solar system for several decades, officials said Tuesday.

“There’s no rest for the weary,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, said. “Even as we’re resolved this budget, the president will soon announce his budget for fiscal year ’15. We’re immediately going to have to get to work to maintain this funding.”

On Monday night, top congressional negotiators released a bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill that would pay for the operations of government through October and finally put to rest the bitter budget battles of last year. Funding for Mars 2020 was contained in the bill.

The 1,582-page bill was released after weeks of negotiations between House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., and Senate counterpart Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who kept a tight lid on the details until its release late Monday.

Schiff said the bipartisan nature of the bill was good for the future of NASA and JPL.

He said the bill makes funds available for the Mars 2020 mission and the study of a possible to Jupiter’s moon Europa, which may contain water.

Officials at JPL examined the appropriations plan Tuesday afternoon.

“We really haven’t had time to go out and test it,” said Richard O’Toole, manager of legislative affairs for JPL. “What Congress did is a very positive thing. We’re encouraged to believe this mission will go forward.”

Advertisement

Funding documents submitted to Congress describe the proposed Mars 2020 mission as a follow up to the highly successful Curiosity.

“Following Curiosity’s daring landing on Mars, (the NASA budget) provides for a new Mars rover mission to launch in 2020, continued operations of rovers and orbiters already at Mars, and launch of MAVEN in November to study the Martian atmosphere.”

Other NASA documents, which are available online, indicate the MARS2020 rover will perform several experiments and stay active for “one Mars year” — about 687 days.

In December JPL sought proposals for experiments that could be performed by the 2020 rover on Mars. The document notes, “one of NASA’s strategic goals is to understand the content, origin, and evolution of the solar system and the potential for life beyond Earth.”

Schiff said the planning of similar missions would keep the JPL talent pool in La Canada Flintridge.

“This could keep JPL very healthy and can keep America the world leader in planetary science,” Schiff said. “We are so tantalizingly close to answering questions about life on Mars. To get this close and then step back would have been a terrible mistake. Schiff said historically it’s been lack of funding that has held NASA research back.

“We’ve seen with the manned flight program how difficult to reconstitute once they are gone,” Schiff said. “If we let that JPL talent pool disappear and we no longer know how to enter the Martian atmosphere and land on the surface, how long until we ever get back?”